Automatic changeable exhibitor



G. J. SELLMEYER. Auommc CHANGE/BLE EXHIBITOR.

` APPLICATION FILED APR. I6. l9l8. 1,368,061 Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

4 SHEETS-SHEET l.

atto: ne t G. I. SELLMEYER. AUTOMATIC CHANGEABLE EXHIBITOR.

' APPLICATION FILED APR. I6, 1918. I 1,368,061. Patend Feb. 8,1921.

4 sIIEeTssIIEET 2.

inve/Idiot G. 1, SELLMEYER. AUIOMATIC CHANGEABLE EXHIBITOR.

ljslw APPLICATION FILED APR, I6. I9I8. 8,

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

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APPLICATION FILED APR. I6, IBIB. 1,368,061.

G. I. SELLMEYER; AUTOMATIC CHANG-EABLE EXHIBITOR.

4 SHEETS-sneu 4A F za/ 7 @Mba/J 56/7/77 ey f' nve'nfoz Patented Feb.' 8, 1921.

UNITED STATES GILBERT J. SELLMEYEB., OF INDEANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

AUTQlVIA- TC CEIANGEABLE EXHIBITOR.

Application filed April 16, 1915.

To all fic/0m it `'may concer/1..'

Be it known that I, @mentir J. Si-mnnn'rnn, a citizen ot the United States, residing at Indianapolis. in the county ot lflarion and State ot Indiana, have invented certain new and uset'ul improvements in Automatic Changeable Exhibitors, oi' which the following is a Specification.

This invention relates to improvements in changeable exhibitors and it is the principal object ot' the invention to provide an automatic exhibitor adapted for arrangement in public vehicles, stores 0r the like, for displaying. in sequential order and at intermittent recurring intervals. a plurality oi signs bearin;` suitable advertising matter, thus, providing an exceedingly attractive and novel device.

It is a more specific object ol" the invention to provide a motor operated display device of the double reel and vveb type. provided with trip means whereby the, signs arranged on the web ivill be moved into positions 'tor display, in a step-by-step fashion and which is capable ot being reversed when the saine has been Wound about one et the reels, in order that it Will be caused to travel in an opposite direction for Winding about the rcmaining reel.

Another and equally .important obi-ect ot the invention is to provide the device with means 'tor temporarily locking the sequentially displayed signs in positions tor display whereby to positively prevent even slight movement thereof.` hence. facilitating or observation ot said signs. @ther objects Will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinatter.

rhe invention accordingly consists in the features ot construction. combinations o'j elements and a 'rangement ot parts which ivill be exempliiied in the construction hereinatter set 'tortln and the scope ot tl'e application ot' which will be indicated in the 'tollowing claims.

1n the accompanying drawings, vvheimin shown one oi various possible embodiments ot my invention:

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section through the exhibitor.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section therethrough,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary det-ail or" the trip member.

Fig. is a detail in perspective or the locking means,

Specification of Letters atent.

' irai-enten Feb. s, i921.

Serial No. 228,919.

IFig. 5 is a :fragmentary side elevation ot the same,

a 'fragmentary detail in elevation el and disk drive,

is a detail in perspective ot the rod and release, and il ig. S is fragmentary detail ot the other disk and trip.

Having more particular reference to the drawing, in connection with which like reference characters will designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, thc reference numerals 1 and 2 designate the several reels oi' the evhibitor, which as will be noted, have the opposite ends ot a `suitable Web 3 engaged therewith and adapted to be alternately wound thereabout. The reel 1 is removably supported while the reel 2 is permanently supported in bearings generally indicated by the numeral 4 arranged in the casing 5 ot' the exhibitor; certain of said bearings having` beveled gears 6 .tixedly mounted upon the outer extremities ot their Y respective shafts, which gears in turn, mesh with similar gears 7 splined to the opposite ends of a vertically disposed driven shaft 8. ln this connection, it is to be noted that the hub portions or collars oit the several beveled gea rs 7 have their inner portions serrated as at 9., thus providing clutch elements.r which adapted to be alternately engaged by connecting pins 10 passing through the adjacent portions of said shaft 8.

power transmission or driving shat't 11 disposed at substantially right angles to the intermediate. portion ot the vertical shaft S and carries a bevel gear 12 upon one end thercoi2 meshing With a similar gear 13 cnsijaged With the drive shaft ot a suitable torni ot' motor 15 which as vvill be understood, may be either oi electric, spring or weight operated types. It will be noted that said car 13 is formed with a blank portion 1" to a purpose to be hereinafter described. Also .mounted on the drive shait ot the motor is a disk 14E; having a trip arm 16 adjustably connected thereto as at 17; the outer end et 'the trip being formed concave as at 1S, 'for purpose which will be hereinafter more fully described. A second bevel gear 19 is loosely mounted on the remaining end ot the driving shaft 11 and has a clutch element 2O formed upon its inner side, which clutch element isqadapted to be engaged by a movable clutch element 21 splin'ed to the shaft 11 and having a yoke 22 loosely engaged with the collar thereof which yoke is provided with a laterally extending operating rod 23 having a notch or keeper 24@ formed therein intermediate its ends and a roller 25 mounted in its tree end adapted to be engaged with the concaved end 18 ot the trip arm i6 at times. rllhis gear 19 meshes with a. bevel gear 26 suitably splined to the intermediate portion of the vertical shaft 8 which latter freely slides through said gear and as will be understood, this gear 2G meshes with the gear 19 irrespective of the shitting or other movement of said shaft 8.

Mounted in suitable bearings arranged in the casing 5 is a screw threaded shaft 27 having a collar 28 engaged therewith, which collar carries a pivoted trip arm 29. Mounted 'on one end ot the screw threaded shaft is a pinion 30 meshing with a second but larger pinion 3l carried by the bevel gear 6 arranged on the reel 2. Thus, it will be appreciated that upon rotation oi. the reel 2,

rotary motion will he imparted by way ot the gears 30 and 3l to the screw threaded shaft 27. A bevel gear 32 is mounted on one portion or" the screw threaded shaft 2T in proximity to the pinion 30 and meshes with a compound gear 33, which gear in turn meshes with the gear teeth 34 arranged upon the peripheral surface of a rotatable disk 35.

Extending longitudinally ot the upper reel 2 and arranged in parallel relation to the screw threaded shaft 27 is a trip rod 36 carrying dogs 37 upon the opposite portions thereof, while one end of said rod is pivotally connected to a bell crank lever 88 pivotally p mounted as at 89 in tho housing 5 and having connection with a link40, which link is in turn connected to a collar 4l. iixedly mounted on the vertical shaft 8. Other trip rods 42 and 43 are arranged helow the rod 36 and in parallel relation to t-he screw threaded shaft 27 these rods carrying dogs t and l5 upon the opposite extremities thereot, while the adjacent ends of the same are pivot-ally engaged with bell crank levers a6 having connection with links 47, the lower ends ot which are secured to an operating rod d8 carrying a roller 49 upon its outer or tree end. As will be noted, this rollerlll) is disposed in the path of travel ot the trip arm 16, for a purpose which will loe hereinafter described.

Spaced serios of circumterentially di,.- posed cams designated by the numerals 50 and 51 are arranged on one i'ace rof the disk 35 and as will be noted, oppose each other, while in the outer portion ot said disk, a. plurality of pairs ot' circumferentially disposed openings 52 are'tormed.

Pivot-ally mounted adjacent one side of the rod 23 is a catch lever 53 adapted to he engaged, at times, in the keeper or notch 24 formed in said rod; said catch lever being normally placed under tension by means of a coil spring 53 engaged with the pivot thereof and hearing on the saine. A pivoted trip 54 is carried by the operating rod 23 and as will be noted, is adapted to be engaged with a trip which will be presently described. Slidably mounted in proximity to the free portion of the lever 53 is a horizontally disposed trip element 55, said trip element being composed of? a plurality oit' pivotally connested sections, certain of which, namely, the outermost, is formed with a shoulder 5G adapted to be engaged, at times, with the tree end of said catch lever 53 for moving the same in a direction to cause disengagement thereof from the keeper 24 in the rod 23. As will be noted, the lower portion ot the trip element 55 is biturcated asV at 5? and has rollers 5S and 59 rotatably mounted upon the lower ends thereof, which rollers are disposed for engagement with the circumferentially disposed series ot' opposed cams 50 and 51. In this connection, it is to he noter. that the section of the biturcated end carry* ing the roller 58 is pivoted to swing in one direction, while the section orp the remaining side of the biturcated end which carries the roller 59 is pivoted to swing in an opposite direction. As a consequence, during rotariY motion of the disk 35 and the engagement ot the rollers with the various cams of the several circumterentially disposed series, one side of the biturcated extremity will be rendered substantially rigid, while the remaining side will be permitted to swing upon its pivot as indicated in the Fig. thus allowing the particular roller carried thereby to be moved freely over the various cams ot its respective or ad]acent series. l-lovrever,

when rotation o1c the disk 35 is reversed, the

action of the pivoted hiiiurcated extremities will be also reversed, thus permitting uninterrupted rotation ot said disk and proper functioning of the trip 55.

As means for locking the disk 55 in its temporarily adjusted positions, to prevent undue movement oft the weh 3 or the reels l and 2, l provide a horizontally arranged slidable locking pin G0 having a head (El formed on its inner end, which head is dapted to be engaged by one portion or e);- trcmity of a bell crank lever 62 also iivotally mounted in the casing at a point in proximity to said pin. The remaining end ot the lever 62 is pivotally connected to link extending into engagement with a second bell crank lever 64 also pivotally mounted upon suitable means in the casing and having its tree end arranged in proximity to a catch 65 which is carried by the operating rod 253. To normally maintain thepinpGO in its locking position, a coil spring 66 is arranged thereabout and has one end ot the same connected to said pin while the remaining end thereoie is connected to one ot the bearings therefor. Consequently, when the locking pin is released, it will immediately move into engagement with the disk 35 and when one of the pairs of openings 52 is alined therewith, it will immediately enter the same.

In operation, the web is fully wound about one of the reels and the motor 15 is started. Rotary motion will be transmitted to the driving shaft 11 and to the disk 14 and as a consequence, when the trip arm 16 carried by said disk is engaged with the roller 25 on the adjacent end of the clutch operating rod 23, the movable clutc-h element 21 will be moved into engagement with the clutch element arranged on the gear 19, designated 20, thus causing rotation of said gear and as a consequence, imparting rotary movement to the shaft 8, which in turn causes rotation of the reels 1 and 2, thus effecting the movement of the web 3 from one reel onto the other. Such movement of the web will bring a particular sign into displaying position, adjacent the transparent pane arranged in the housing 5, whereupon the spring clutch catch lever 53 will engage in the keeper 24 of said operating rod 23, thereby maintaining the clutch element 21 in engagement with the clutch element 20 for a period of time. Movement of the rod 23 to cause engaging of the clutch element 21 with the element 20 will also cause the Yloell crank lever A64 to be tripped by the catch 65 and as a consequence, the slidable locking pin 60 will be disengaged from one of the openings 5'2 in the rotatable disk 35, thus allowing said disk to be rotated by reason of its connection with the reel 2. Upon rot-ation of the disk 35, the rollers 58 and 59 carried upon the bifurcated lower end of the trip 55 will engage with their respective series of cams and as a consequence, will cause said trip to slide and when the rollers have reached the highest point of the active series of cams, the shoulder 56 will engage with the free portion of the catch lever 53 and move the same to cause disengagement thereof from the keeper 24 in the operating rod 23, thereby permitting the clutch element 21 to be immediately disengaged from the element 20 and as a consequence, interrupting the transmission of rotary motion to the reels 1 and 2. As the roller engaged with the active series of cams becomes disengaged from the adjacent cam, the catch lever 53 is permitted to return to its normal position ready. for further engagement with the rod 23 when the same is again moved due to connection between the trip arm 16 and the roller 25 carried on the outer end thereof. In this way, it will be understood that the disk 34 when enga-ged by the locking pin 60 will serve to positively prevent undue movement or travel of the web portion 3 and in this way will permit `the sign alined with the transparent pane in the housing to be properly displayed.

Rotation of the reels 1 and 2 in this step-bystep fashion continues until the web has been entirely removed from one and arranged about the other. At this time, the rotating screw threaded shaft 27 Will have caused the collar 28 to assume a position in proximity to the dogs 37 and 45 arranged on the trip rods 36 and 43. Hence, when the roller 49 is engaged by the trip arm 16, a pull will be imparted to the rod 43 by Way of the connecting rod 48, the bell crank lever 46 and link 47, thereby engaging the dog 45 with the adjacent end of the pivoted arm 29 and swinging the same in a direction to cause the free end of said arm to be swung into engagement with the adjacent dog 37 on the trip rod 36. In this connection it is to be noted that the blank portion 13 of the gear 13 will cause motion thereto to be interrupted when the arm 16 engages the roller 25 thus momentarily stopping the. shaft 11 and clutch 21, permitting the same to be properly engaged with the clutch 20 and thereby avoiding the stripping of the teeth from each of the same. Such engagement of the free end of the arm 29 with'said dog 37 will impart a pull to the rod 36, which in turn, will be transmitted to the vertical shaft 8, causing the shifting of the shaft to effect the disengagement of the pin 1() from the previously engaged gear 7 and the engagement of the remaining pin 10 with the adjacent gear 7, said connection, of course being effectedI by means of the clutch element 9 formed thereon. By so shifting the vertically disposed shaft, the transmission of rotary motion to the reels 1 and 2 will be reversed and consequently, the web which is now arranged about the second reel will be caused to move therefrom onto said first reel at this time, the reversing operation will be repeated should the operation of the motor 14 be continued. It is to be un-V derstood, that the reversing of the shaft 8 will also be effected when the collar 28 has been returned to the opposite end of the screw threaded shaft 27, that is, that end carrying the bevel gear 32. However, at this time, the pivotal arm 29 will act upon the adjacent dog 37 and the dog 44 to effect the reversal of rotary motion to the reels 1 and Furthermore, when the direction of rotation of the reels is reversed, the direc tion of travel of the disk 35 will be also Areversed and as a consequence, the formerly inactive series of cams will become active` while the active ones will become inactive. thereby effecting the necessary movement of the trip 5 5 with relation to the catch lever 53.

It is to be understood, that to start the exhibitor. the roll 1 is placed in the casing by depressing one of the bearing elements 4, the remaining end then being engaged by the adjacent bearing 4, whereupon the free end of the web "is pulledupwardly and engaged with the reel 2 which has-been previously mounted in its `respective bearings a in the casing. The vreel 2 `is now rotated by hand until the first sign alines with the transparent insert in the casing. At this time, the

reel l is, in properposition for feeding the sign carrying web therefrom. Hence, when the machine is' automatically operated by means of the motor 14, the signs will'be properly alined with'the transparent pane of the casing when displayed in sequential order.

lFrom the foregoing, it will befunderstood by persons' skilledl in the art that Iy have provided an exceedingly attractive and efiicient changeable exhibitor which may be adapted for various uses, such as displaying advertising mattei', or for displaying stations in railwayor streetv cars, or' in fact, in any instances wherein it is desired to provide a novel form of changeable exhibitor. Further, the operation ofl the exhibitor is such as will permit the device to. operate continuously with but littleif any attention, thereby adding materially to the practicability of the same.

Manifestly, the construction shown is capable of considerable modification and such modification as iswithin the scope of my claims,I consider within the spirit of my invention.' i i I claim y l. In ani exhibitorV Vof `the character described, a motor, a driven shaft operated by said motor, a counter-shaft, disposed at right angles to the driven shaft and rotatably supported meshing gears connecting the driven and counter-shafts, the gear on the countershaft being' mounted for the sliding of the latter, the gear on the driven shaft being loose thereon, means for making fast the gear on the driven shaft, reel operating gears adapted to be alternately connected with the counter-shaft, and trip mechanism controlled by-the operation of the motor to intermittently shift the counter-shaft and the means for'makingfast the gear-on the driven shaft. 2. In an exhibitor of the character described, a .motor having a mutilated driving gear, a disk rotatable with lthe driving' gear, a driven shaft having a pinion meshing with the driving'gear, a counter-shaft disposed at right angles to the driven shaft and constrncted and arrangedfor sliding and rotary movements, -gear Vconnections between the driving and counter-shafts, the gear on the driven shaft being loose thereon, aV clutch on' the driven shaft forengagement with the loose gear to make the same fast upon said: driven shaft, a cam member rotatably sup-, ported, means for shifting the clutch, tripping means carried by the-disk for intermittently moving the shifting means for the clutch, devices, one operated by the cam member to release the clutch shifting means,

and the other operated byasaid shifting means to control the movement of the cam member'and tripping mechanism for shifting the counter-shaft and controlled by the tripping means on the disk.

3. In an exhibitorv ofthe character described, a motor having a mutilated driving gear, a disk rotatable with the driving gear, a driven shaft having a pinion meshing with the driving gear, a counter-shaft disposed at right angles to they driven shaft and constructed and arranged for sliding and rotary movements, gear connections between the driving and counter-shafts, the gear on the driven shaft being loose thereon, a'clutch on the driven shaft for engagement with the loose gear to make the same fast upon said driven shaft, a cam member rotatably supported, means for shifting the clutch, tripping means carried bythe disk for intermittentl'y moving the shiftingV means for the clutch, devices, one operated by the cam member to release the clutchshifting means, and thefother operated by said shifting means Vto control the movement of the cam member, and tripping mechanism for shifting the counter-shaft and controlled bythe tripping means on the disk, and reel operating mechanism lpositively engaged alternately by the counter-shaft rfor transmitting motion from the motor thereto. Y

4; In an exhibitorof the character described, a motor havingv amutilated driving gear,a disk rotatable with the driving gear, a driven shafthaving a pinion meshing with the driving gear, a counter-shaft disposed at right anglesto th'e'driven shaft and constructed and arranged for sliding and rotary movements, gear connections between the drivingvand counter-shafts, the gear on the driven shaft being loose thereon, a clutch on the driven shaftv for engagement with the loosegear'to makerthe same Yfast upon said driven shaft, a cam member rotatably .supported, means for shifting the clutch, trip-` ping means carried by the disk for intermittently moving the shifting means for the clutch, devices, one operated by the cam member to release the clutch shifting means, and the other operated by said shifting means to control the movement of the cam member, a. feedl screw operated by the cam member, a feed collar Working on? the screw and having a tripping arm,ftripping mecha-` nism controlled by the tripping arm to shift the counter-shaft, reel operating mechanism alternately 'engaged positively by the counter-shaft, 'and tripping mechanism actuated by the tripping arm to effect the reversal of movement of the cam member'and also the operating 'mechanism'for reels. e'

Intestimony whereof, I affix my signature hereto.-

A GILBERT JJSELLMEYER. 

